182 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 
to the Pheenicians before the time of Moses under the name of ola or 
Thola (ybyp), to the’ Greeks under that of Coccus (Koxkos), and to the 
Arabians and Persians under that of Kermes or Alkermes ; whence, as 
Beckmann has shown, and from the epithet vermiculatum given to it in the 
middle ages, when it was ascertained to be the produce of a worm, have 
sprung the Latin coccineus, the French cramoisi and vermeil, and our 
crimson and vermilion. It was most probably with this substance that the 
curtains of the tabernacle (Exod. xxvi. &c.) were dyed, deep red (which 
the word scarlet, as our translators have rendered %3¥ ny>\Nn, then implied, 
not the colour now so called, which was not known in James the First’s 
reign when the Bible was translated), — it was with this that the Grecians 
and Romans produced their crimson; and from the same source were de- 
rived the imperishable reds of the Brussels and other Flemish tapestries. 
In short, previous to the discovery of cochineal, this was the material 
universally used for dyeing the most brilliant red then known ; and though 
that production of the New World has, in some respects undeservedly 1, 
supplanted it in Europe, where it is little attended to except by the pea- 
santry of the provinces in which it is found, it still continues to be em- 
ployed in a great part of India and Persia.? 
The scarlet grain of Poland (Coccus polonicus) is found on the roots of 
the perennial knawel (Scleranthus perennis, a scarce plant in this country, but 
abundant in the neighbourhood of Elvedon in Suffolk), and was at one 
time collected in large quantities for dyeing red in the Ukraine, Lithuania, 
&c. But though still employed by the Turks and Armenians for dyeing 
wool, silk, and, hair, as well as for staining the nails of women’s fingers, 
it is now rarely used in Europe except by the Polish peasantry. A similar 
neglect has attended the Coccus found on the roots of Poterium San- 
guisorba’, which was used by the Moors for dyeing silk and wool a rose 
aoe ; and the Coccus Uva-ursi, which with alum affords a crimson 
lye. 
Cochineal, the Coccus cacti, is doubtless the most valuable product for 
which the dyer is indebted to insects, and, with the exception perhaps of 
indigo, the most important of dyeing materials. Though the Spaniards 
found it employed by the natives of Mexico, where alone it is cultivated, 
on their arrival in that country in 1518, its true nature was not accurately 
ascertained for nearly two centuries afterwards, Acosta, indeed, as early 
as 1530, and Herrara and Hernandez subsequently, had stated it to be an 
insect: but, led apparently by its external appearance, notwithstanding the 
conjectures of Lister and assertions of Pére Plumier to the contrary, it 
was believed by Europeans in general to be the seed of-a plant, until 
Hartsoeker in 1694, Leeuwenhoek and De la Hire in 1704, and Geoffroy, 
{ 1 The colour communicated by Kermes, with alum, the only mordant formerly 
/ employed, is blood red; but Dr. Bancroft found (i. 404.) that with the solution of 
) tin used with cochineal it is capable of imparting a scarlet quite as brilliant as that 
/ dye, and perhaps more permanent. At the same time, however, as ten or twelve 
| pounds contain only as much colouring matter as one of cochineal, the latter at its 
| ordinary price is the cheapest. 
| 2 Bochart, Zxerozoic. ii. liv. ¢.27. Beckmann’s History of Inventions, Engl. 
Trans. ii. 171—205. Bancroft on Permanent Colours, i. 398. Sce also Parkhurst’s 
Heb, Lexicon under and yy. 
5 Rai. Hist. Plane onan ne. 4 Bancroft, i. 401 
